Fast-Food Millionaire’s Son Jailed in Pot Case

The son of millionaire San Diego businessman Robert O. Peterson was sentenced Monday to six months in federal prison for conspiracy to possess marijuana with intent to distribute.

Cris Carleton Peterson, 36, whose father founded Foodmaker Inc., which is the parent company of the Jack in the Box fast-food restaurant chain, entered a change of plea before U.S. District Judge Howard Turrentine, who also ordered that he be placed on four years’ probation upon his release.

A federal indictment unsealed in September charged Peterson and four other men with plotting to smuggle marijuana into the United States by airplane from Mexico. He was arrested by federal agents at a house he was leasing in Palos Verdes.

The count to which Peterson pleaded guilty alleged that a 120-pound shipment was flown to a ranch near Escondido in September, 1982. Two other charges of marijuana trafficking were dropped in exchange for the guilty plea.

Peterson’s attorney, Joseph Milchen, told Turrentine that his client “tried to emulate his father’s success . . . and in this day and age a tremendous amount of money can be made selling drugs.”

Peterson, reading from a prepared statement, told the judge he has started a new business manufacturing silk flowers in an effort to turn his life around.

“I acknowledge and renounce my wrongdoing,” he said. “From reading the (probation department’s) reports, I can’t believe the person presented in them is me.”

Peterson is the stepson of Maureen O’Connor, wife of Robert Peterson and a candidate for mayor of San Diego. A spokesman for O’Connor, a former city councilwoman and port commissioner, said the matter was “beyond her consideration.”

Peterson’s father is out of the country and was unavailable for comment.